"Thankye, Liss," said the captain, taking his pinch, and handing back
the box; "sit down. Syd, pass those clean glasses."

The admiral took a pinch, and then the new-comer took his, loudly
snapped-to the box, and drew out a delicate cambric handkerchief to flap
off some snuff from his shirt-frill.

As soon as the doctor was comfortably seated the port was passed, and
then there was silence, Sydney looking from one to the other, and
wondering what was coming next.

The doctor, too, looked from one to the other and formed his own
opinion.

"Hullo!" he said. "In disgrace, Sydney? What have you been doing,
sir?"

"Eating walnuts," said the boy, mischievously.

"And defying his father and uncle--a dog!" cried the admiral. "Here,
Liss; what do you think he says?"

"Bless me! I don't know."

"Why, confound him! says he wants to be a doctor."

"Does he?" cried the new-comer, turning to look at Sydney. "Well, I'm
not surprised."

"But I am," cried Captain Belton, angrily.

"And I'm astounded," said the admiral. "A Belton descend to being an
apothecary."

"Ah!" said the doctor, dryly, as he held his glass up to the light,
"terrible descent, certainly. Wants to save life instead of destroying
it."

"Now, look here, Liss," began the admiral, fiercely.

"No, no, Tom, let me speak," said Captain Belton. "No quarrelling."

"No, you had better not quarrel," said the doctor, good-humouredly.
"Make you both ill, and then I shall have you at my mercy."

"Indeed you will not," said the admiral, "for I'll call in old Marchant
from Lowerport."

"Not you," cried the doctor, laughing; "you dare not. I'm the only man
who understands your constitution."

"There, there, there!" cried the captain, "that's enough. But really,
sir, it's too bad. As an old friend I did not think you would lead my
boy astray."

"I? Astray? Nonsense!"

"But you have, sir. You've taken him out with you on your rounds, and
the young dog thinks of nothing else but doctoring."

"And pill-boxes and gallipots," said the admiral, fiercely.

"Now, my dear old friends, you are not talking sense," said the doctor,
quietly. "Sydney has been my rounds with me a good deal, and he has
certainly displayed so much interest in all my surgical cases, that if
he were my boy I should certainly make him a doctor."

"Impossible!" cried the captain.

"Not to be heard of," said Sir Thomas. "He's going to sea."

Sydney, who had been fidgetin